And it’s not good.

Any hope that the Review Board might take a more balanced approach, as with the reclassification of F.E.A.R. 2 was dashed yesterday, with the board citing that there was “insufficient delineation between the depiction of general zombie figures and the human figures, as opposed to the clearly fictional ‘infected’ characters.” As a result, Australian audiences will be restricted to a watered-down version of the game, which removes the “depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail, or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment.”

This is just the latest in the wheel of classification fortune. (Again, the inconsistency of the ruling is bizarre, given that F.E.A.R. 2 pitted you against clearly human adversaries.)

“We’ve always believed in the merit of the game as an MA15+ title, and we’re pleased that the Review Board saw it our way,” the Warner Bros. spokesman said. The appeal process involved Warner Bros. representatives performing a live game demonstration with the Review Board members, as well as taking questions from the Board. The Warner Bros. spokesman said the appeals process allowed them to better explain the “detail, context, and storyline behind the game.”

Although it would be nice to label this as a victory for common sense, all that this ridiculous process has proved is that the Australian Classification System is confused and inconsistent. As long as Australia lacks the framework necessary to restrict adult-content games to an adult audience, this sort of farcical, “make-it-up-as-you-go” sort of result is going to continue to be the norm.

Source: F.E.A.R. unbanned in Australia (Randolph Ramsay, Gamespot AU)